Time to plant!
So spring (summer?) is really in the air and I love all the time, care and thought that is spent on planting (especially in Montreal when the season is such a short one). Even if you don’t have a garden, all you may need is a bicycle, a fence or the front door to share beautiful blooms all season long.
Image via parishotelboutique
Image via nathanlawrenson
Image via stocksundgarden
Image via fivedaysfiveways
4 hours of Solve My Space: day 1 of revamping a storage room
I love many aspects of my work but something I really enjoy is how quickly you can see results in a home. One of my current projects is to help a client transform the “storage/laundry/cat litter/everything gets dumped here” room into an organized and functional space.
The first step is always decluttering and in just 4 hours we emptied out the entire space, filled a car with donations as well as accumulated many bags for recycling and trash. A lot of work in not much time! Below you’ll find some before and after photos of the space. Our next session will involve transporting storage cabinets from another room and organizing everything in the room. Stay tuned!
Home Office Revamp
The goal in this home was to create a brighter, spacious home office, keeping the budget low and affordable. The initial desk was donated to a daycare and a new desk was purchased for $99.00. It was placed against the long wall creating a lot more open space around the desk. A fresh new coat of paint in Chantilly Lace (Benjamin Moore) covers the previous dark Aubergine. A low side-table was taken from another room in the home to serve as a storage area.
Everything else was re-used from different areas in the home: the desk chair, artwork and storage boxes.
RESOURCES
- White Desk: Ikea
- Grey Eiffel Chair: Nuspace (re-used from another room)
- Side Table: Vintage (re-used from living room)
- Grey Box: Semikolon (re-used from another room)
Girl’s Bedroom Upgrade
A client was interested in creating a new look for her 8 year-old daughter’s room. The goal was to repurpose certain items in the room yet add new accents and colours. We worked together to find the items for the room as well as to include her daughter in choices for her new bedroom. Both the walls and the bed were repainted different shades of white, giving the overall room a more modern feel. We chose new bedding and a vintage table and fun lamp for the bedside as well as a modern rocker to create a little reading nook in the corner.
In addition, the room was in need of an organizational solution for the large closet.
RESOURCES
- White Rocker: Eames
- New Duvet Cover: Garnet Hill
- Pink table: Vintage from Buk & Nola
- Closet System: Closet Space
- Purple Rug: Pottery Barn
- Pink Lamp: Pablo lamp from Style Labo
- Chandelier Decal: Land of Nod
Playroom
Playrooms can be one big clutter-fest. Our task here was to control the toy clutter, create open spaces for play and games and find a place for everything (and where kids could put things away easily themselves!).
During this redesign project, the green sofa was sold and two vintage chairs were purchased. The rest of the furniture (tables, desk, bookcases) were moved around to create a completely new space.
A large 16 cubby Ikea Expedit was purchased and the existing 8 cubby Expedit was moved to create the storage for all of the toys. Individual white bins (labeled by the kids) are used to store collections, games, art projects and toys.
New FLOR tiles were purchased to replace the old ones, and a new colour was chosen to add some punches of colour on the floor where the kids play.
RESOURCES
- Expedit Cube Bookshelves: Ikea
- Colourful vintage chairs: Boutique Spoutnik
- Desk: P’kolino
- Tree Wallpaper Sihouette: Romp
- Carpet: FLOR
All after images via Vivian Doan Photography
Closet to Home Office
It’s really fun to work on a project where you see significant results quickly. Here, a client was interested in transforming a closet/storage space into a home office for her business. We made a lot of progress together in just 3 sessions—and what helps so much is that she also accomplished a lot of work in between sessions and afterwards.
The storage room was initially intended to be a walk-in style closet since there are no windows in the room. Two large Ikea Pax wardrobes took up a large part of the room and over time and a new baby, it filled with just baby junk and boxes of pre-pregnancy clothing. The room became so cluttered that it was no longer used for anything other than a room for storage and junk. Since the baby arrived, the client is trying to rearrange her home in order to create a bedroom for her child. So we decided to move her home office into this room.
The door to the room was removed and stored. White eco-friendly Benjamin Moore paint was chosen in Mountain Peak White to cover the old peachy colour. White Ikea office furniture was purchased so that the room could stay as airy as possible. The desk and chair already belonged to the client. A ceiling lamp from Home Depot replaced the old Ikea track lighting.
My client re-used her old desk from a few years ago that was being used as the family’s dining-room table. It was actually a perfect fit for the little nook in the room. My client tells me that one of her favourite things about her new home office is that there is a place for everything!
A photo of my client’s old desk. She was using her old enormous dining room harvest-sized table as her desk and it was simply a catch-all for clutter. The desk was in another room in the house. This liberated room will be used as their future master bedroom.
During this project, we ended up throwing away 11 bags of garbage and donating 7 bags of clothing and assorted accessories along with an old suitcase. The bags of donations we given to Le Chainon on Saint-Laurent Street in the Plateau Mont Royal.
RESOURCES
- White drawer units, white bookshelf, paper lamps, sheepskin: Ikea
- Desk and chair: Bureau en gros
- Frames: Chapters Indigo
- Cloud Print: Irene Suchoki (Montreal photographer)
- White office supplies: Martha Stewart for Avery, and Ikea
- Wood Stereo: Tivoli Audio
All images via Vivian Doan Photography
Entryway Transformation
The colour red can be fun and vibrant but in this small space, the owners of this home felt that it was too overpowering for the mudroom/entry hallway of their modern townhouse. The first thing we addressed was the paint colour. We decided on a lighter, more subtle and welcoming colour – a medium grey.
In order to keep a punch of colour, we added a splash of teal and a playful cutout for the powder room door.
The mid-century designed Eames coat hook was kept on the wall to keep with the modern feel of the mudroom.
On this wall, the hooks for the coats, backpacks and umbrellas were functional so we also kept them. We removed the egg print and replaced it with a large vintage mirror to open up the space and make it feel larger. A wooden magnetic key holder was moved from the other wall.
In the before image, you’ll see that shoes and hats and accessories were overflowing, creating a feeling of chaos and clutter. We added a cabinet (total=$60.00) to store shoes and accessories and keep them out of sight, reducing the clutter and making the space more open and welcoming.
RESOURCES
- Shoes Cabinet: Ikea
- Vintage Mirror: Montreal Moderne
- Multicolour Coat Hook: Eames from MOMA Design Store
- Coat Hooks: Ikea
All after images via Vivian Doan Photography
New Guest Room
A beautiful mid-century modern style guest room was created in an old home office.
The main feature wall originally had an old desk as well as a bookcase and other household items. The room was cleared out and a futon bed from another room was moved in.
The old dresser in the corner of the room was reused but it was de-cluttered and new artwork was hung on the wall.
An old black bookcase was removed along with a wooden chair in another corner and replaced with a mirror and a mid-century modern dresser/desk. Artwork from other areas of the home was selected to hang above the desk.
Some light grey curtains were added and the artwork was replaced on the wall next to the sofa bed.
In addition, we went through the large closet in the room to sort through belongings and clothes. You can see the bags of donations below!
RESOURCES
- Futon: Re-used from another room in the house, new cover purchased at Futon d’Or
- Mid-century desk/dresser: ReDesign
- Artwork: Client’s own artwork
New Baby Room
For this project, our clients wanted to convert a bedroom that belonged to their daughters into a nursery for their son.
The process involved going through everything in the room: toys, clothes, desk and furniture. Some items were donated, toys/clothes (to be used when the baby is older) were packed away in large containers and stored in the attic, and other items to be used in the upcoming year were organized in a bookcase that we moved from another room.
We also cleaned out the dresser and closet and added the baby’s clothes, linens and other day-to-day essentials.
Storage to Art Studio
A client was interested in transforming a storage area into an art studio. Our client wanted to keep a large table in the room for drafting and sketching so we cleaned out the room (lots of boxes for donations!) and created a working space in front of one window, as well as a painting space by the window to the garden.
On this wall, you’ll see the before picture which shows a number of furniture pieces that we sorted through and donated, as well as books, electronic equipment and clothes. The after picture shows the custom shelves that were built to house and organize the artwork and maintain a sense of order within the room.
The studio will be a place to paint and work as well as to house an impressive collection of art books. On one wall in the room, we moved pre-existing bookcases to create a library and and organized books, pamphlets and catalogues into discrete categories.
This transformation created a lot of donations!
